Tuesday, December 15, 2009

If you missed it, two weeks ago, we found out we are moving to Turkey in July! Why the stress, July is many months away still? Did I mention that Michael is leaving TOMORROW and will be in Iraq for the next six months... Oy vey!

There have been so many things that were necessary to accomplish before he left that I feel like I haven't stopped or taken a breath in the last two weeks.

Beyond my regular motherly/homemaker duties we have:
~ Completely cleared our crawl space before Michael leaves (because the movers won't go in there) since I didn't want to get stuck trying to bring all the stuff up by myself.
~ I have sorted EVERY piece of baby/kid clothing and gear in all of the bins we were keeping for future children (most of you know that we won't be having any more children since I had such extreme complications following Rachael's birth). I have taken photos and listed a lot of our gear on craigslist, given/sold some to friends and taken tons to Goodwill.
~ All of the items that had previously been stored (in Rubbermaid tubs) in the crawl space are now stored in the garage, so I've completely rearranged the garage to accommodate all the bins AND the van.
~ Spent countless hours discussing all the ins-and-outs of things I will need to accomplish while Michael is away.
~ Decided not to sell our house.
~ Filled out lots of paperwork.
~ Plus tons more small things that I know I'm forgetting because my head is so full of information, I feel like it will explode at any moment.

Today is the final appointment of items to be accomplished before Michael leaves. We must go apply for our military passports and Visas. The paperwork is complete and photos have been taken, the only thing left is to go in at 2:00 and finalize it all.

I still have a long journey ahead of me, but it's all manageable since I don't have to accomplish it all in a two week time span (and I have some wonderful babysitters lined up for those days when I just don't want to take the children to certain appointments)!

So, dear readers, if I'm not around much over the next few weeks, it's not because I've abandoned you, it's because I'm taking a wee break. The kids and I will be driving to Arkansas to spend Christmas with some of my extended family and I'm going to rest my tired self and gain up my strength to endure this deployment!